The first WorldMaps conference on teamwork in health care was held in Malta last week. Professor John Rizzo Naudi, Chancellor of the University of Malta, President Emeritus Vincent Tabone, the Rector, Professor Roger Ellul Micallef, Dr Colin Hitchings, representing the medical and pharmacy international associations, Professor Albert Cilia Vincenti, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, and Professor Anthony Serracino Inglott, Head, Department of Pharmacy, addressed the opening ceremony.
Dr Lilian Azzopardi, senior lecturer at the Department of Pharmacy, the keynote speaker, said that meeting the contemporary challenges in health care requires a concerted action by health professionals. Health professionals should practise interdependently, aiming to achieve rational, safe and effective patient care. Medical and pharmacy schools together with the bodies should take a leadership role to lay the foundations for health professionals to perform in a teamwork approach.
The common interest of members of all health professionals is the patient: the provision of quality patient care and patient safety. The patient is the focus around which interdisciplinary programmes are most likely to succeed. To this focus each professional brings special knowledge and insight for the benefit of all. It is in this setting that new attitudes can be developed and new insights gained.
It is not easy for members of the health professions to learn together. However it is worth the effort. Learning together implies face-to-face discussions during which mutual interests are explored and overlapping problems pursued. The nature of the interaction among groups is influenced by individual personalities, perception of the professional roles, and motivation of the individual members of the team.
Health professionals are faced with tremendous scientific and technological advances and with better educated and more pro-active consumers. Each health profession must reappraise its sphere and duties and re-evaluate traditional methods of practice. These challenges should be taken up as an opportunity for a joint effort for the development of new attitudes and insights for the provision of health care. This is the key to success in interdisciplinary education for the future.